They’re value added products and loss leaders.
AKA the retailer – like Costco – hopes that when you buy a chicken you’re also going to buy other stuff.
You may go in for the chicken but you have:
- Advertising everywhere
- Sides to eat with the chicken
- a checkout isle with drinks and sweets
- Impulse buys for things you might need
They’re taking a loss on the chicken (they pay more for the chicken than you do at checkout) but they’re hoping they come out on top as you’re expected to buy more than just the chicken.
Remember, every time you go in and just buy the chicken, they lose money.
But for a lot of People and Families, that isn’t how they shop.
Proving this Concept Because I Like Copycatting Stuff at Home
This is based on Market Basket’s Chicken as I prefer it to all others – I also don’t have Costco near me.
But everything here is the same application with different pricing for the roasters.
Whenever you do this at home, you want to use the smaller birds – they’ll be labeled “Whole Young Chicken” or similar.
The reason they’re using smaller birds is because they have a bigger skin to meat ratio and are more tender; Overall they just work far better on a rotisserie.
For 1 whole young chicken at my grocery store – average weight of 3.73 lbs – that’s ~$10.
Honestly…I could stop this article right now – even at my Local Grocery Store a whole roaster is $7.99, at BJs they’re $5.99, and Market Basket is usually around less than ~$5.
So before we even brine this thing it’s almost 2x cheaper just to buy the roaster chicken.
The Process and Cost Breakdown and Why it Makes No Sense
So aside from the cost of the actual chicken we need to:
- Brine
- Season
- Cook
All of which increases the cost.
To brine you need (for 1 chicken)
- water = ~9 cups of water
- salt = ~4.5 tbsp table salt
- sugar = ~2.5 tbsp dextrose
Assuming water is “free” via the tap – the salt is $0.11 and I use Dextrose for Sugar which is $0.84.
The salt is store brand from BJs and most roaster chickens use Dextrose, which mine is from Fermentaholics – you could opt for regular sugar but Dextrose is always on the label.
So even for the brine ingredients for 1 bird, that’s $0.95 just to get more flavorful, tender juicy meat, and better browning.
Removing from the Brine to Rinse and Air Dry
This part is technically “Free” but it’s just more time involved with rinsing with water and pat drying with paper towel.
Then optionally air drying in your fridge to make the skin less wet for browning – so ~2-4 hours for that or overnight.
Seasonings
So even here – this step sort of assumes you have these spices already so that you can make the seasoning. If you don’t you need to buy in bulk, which only increases the cost even more.
| Ingredient | Qty | Batch Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Wellsley Farms Table Salt | 3.5 tsp | $0.029 |
| Burlap & Barrel Smoked Paprika | 1 tbsp | $0.607 |
| Wellsley Farms Garlic Powder | ¼ tsp | $0.012 |
| Wellsley Farms Onion Powder | ¼ tsp | $0.008 |
| Wellsley Farms Ground Pepper | ⅛ tsp | $0.006 |
| Accent MSG | ⅛ tsp | $0.011 |
| Argo Cornstarch | ¼ tsp | $0.004 |
(Upfront cost for batch sizes of all of these spices is $79.36 – my Paprika is expensive though)
This is the rub I made for my chicken – it is enough for 2-3 birds.
So assuming ~2-3 tsp per bird (7.5 tsp total rub above) that’s $0.18-$0.27 per bird.
Actually Cooking the Bird
This assumes you have a rotisserie to cook the chicken in a similar way.
So I have my Monument Gas Grill with a Rotisserie attachment.
This grill uses Liquid Propane which I already have a tank for – to refill it’s ~$25 for a 15 lb tank.
Assuming a medium-high heat – that’s around 1-2 lbs of propane in 1 hour (which is how long-ish this takes to cook).
So that’s $1.67–$3.33 of propane.
So Just the Brine, Seasonings, and Propane Costs at most $4.55
Add the cost of the raw whole young chicken at ~$10.
That’s $14.55 for a Market Basket style Roaster Chicken at home.
(Not to mention the time investment – a day for brining, 2-4 hours for air drying or overnight, and 1.5 hours to cook)
vs if I went to MB it would be $4.69; Even the Jumbos are ~$10 for a fully cooked chicken.
So, stick it to the “man” so-to-speak.
Walk into the store, just buy the chicken nothing else, and your only expense is gas money.
Needless to say you CAN make this at home, but honestly, why would you – apart from trying to avoid chemicals but that’s a topic for an entirely different website.
